Rate the last film you saw

[Wesley]

I'm surprised you didn't realise it was rubbish.

 

A half baked comedy with a awful "story" that was rammed down your throat half way through.

[Daft]

I'm surprised you didn't realise it was rubbish.

 

A half baked comedy with a awful "story" that was rammed down your throat half way through.

 

Half baked comedy? It stopped being a comedy very early on. I liked how what he did had real world consequences and how he needed PR.

 

Simply put, this film isn't a comedy and shouldn't have been marketed as such. I liked the story. There wasn't any lame bit where the hero is roused by onlookers after being beaten down. I liked how it was a relatively personal story, none of this crap like saving the world or humanity, these two people were unreal in a totally grounded world.

 

Yeah, some bits jarred but it was different enough for me to actually be interested in it. Rather than just watch it mindlessly like most other superhero films.

 

I'd happily watch it again.

 

I watched the 'unrated' version, if that makes any difference.

[Wesley]

I need to get hold of it. I did like it when I watched it at the cinema. Some good moments.

 

Oh, I watched Monsters Inc. Good film, not my favourite Pixar movie... seems a little... empty at times.

[jayseven]

But what about Mickey, who Brad Pitt played?

 

Sorry bud, I don't know what you're asking, exactly?

[Paj!]

A Beautiful Mind

 

It was good, reminding my why Maths is so amazing, and that I wish my brain could actually work with it.

Jennifer Connelly is my new favourite person, after this and Requiem for a Dream. I like how she looks both old and young at the same time.

It wasn't amazing in my eyes, a bit sentimental (without being that effective) i nthe second half, kinda winded down from a possibly exciting bit.

 

8/10

[Daft]

 

Awful. I'd tell you in my own words but someone's said it much better than I could ever,

 

"Nobody likes a downer, and sure enough Boyle's latest folly is an uplifting piece of crap that combines two of our favourite pastimes: winning the lottery and cultural obliviousness.

 

If Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy were contemporaries of Leni Riefenstahl, rest assured they would have made a happy-go-lucky triumph of the will piece starring the involuntary residents of Auschwitz in the world's most inappropriate game of "You Bet Your Life". (Made me laugh. )

 

It's the sort of film that wins awards this time of year because it's the sort of film that encourages audiences to applaud themselves for their tolerance of blacks/retards/Jews/fags from the safety of a theatre full of people of the exact same socio-cultural strata. It's cool that Jamal (Dev Patel) watches his mom die from rebar and swims in a septic hole for a movie star's autograph, because such horrific ordeals have prepped him to win a whole lotta rupees on the India edition of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". Too facile to describe it this way? Consider the climactic moment when he's asked the name of Dumas' third musketeer and how he flashes to a time he neglected the opportunity to learn it properly in school because he's delinquent; no matter, he'll use a lifeline.

 

If Slumdog Millionaire isn't a racist melodrama that uses real misery and human degradation as the backdrop for a fairytale of how everything works out in the end (and it is), then it's a movie that says the key to escaping the hell of privation and a complete lack of hope for the future isn't betterment through education, but winning a goddamned Western game show."

 

Just utter rubbish. How people are so amazingly stupid as to buy into this drivel never ceases to amaze me.

 

 

Bollocks/10

 

This joins Crash (2004) and Lost in Translation as awful films that people like because they think they should.

[Chris the great]

the hangover or be reminded just how big and clever it is to get drunk or dude, where's my car, but good

 

ok, i went in expecting a few giggles and nothing more. what i got was damn near pissing in my pants in public. the film was, simply put, brilliant. say all you want about films not pushing boundries or doing anything new, the film was a comedy, it made me laugh. misson successfull.

 

it was cool how the events all take place after drunkeness, which would have been the focus of most films. the waking up in a trashed room and wandering what the hell happened thing was very relatable, watching them try to figure out what happened, checking pockets etc really did hit the whole what the hell did we do thing on the head.

 

oh, and the piano bit had me in tears.

 

a great film to watch with your mates, lots of laughs and one of heather grahem's tits is shown

8/10

[Retro_Link]

Bollocks/10

 

This joins Crash (2004) and Lost in Translation as awful films that people like because they think they should.

In your opinion.

 

Personally based on that, I'd rate you bollocks/10.

 

I really enjoyed it. And the atmosphere in the cinema watching it was great.

 

Hancock though I agree was a crackin' surprise!!

[Daft]

In your opinion.

 

Personally based on that, I'd rate you bollocks/10.

 

I really enjoyed it. And the atmosphere in the cinema watching it was great.

 

Hancock though I agree was a crackin' surprise!!

 

My humble opinion?

 

Of the 800 or so Bollywood films that are made every year, the one that ends up at the Oscars is directed by a Westerner and funded by Western money. There are so many imperialist overtones in this film, anyone finding favour in it needs to get their head checked.

 

Crash, the abysmal film where everyone is convieniently racist. It's farcical.

 

Lost in Translation, yes that is my humble opinion. I get why people like it, so I shouldn't have lumped it with the other two.

[Chris the great]

in fairness, how much bollywood have you seen? its fucking retarded.

[EEVILMURRAY]

This joins Lost in Translation as awful films that people like because they think they should.

YES!

[Daft]

in fairness, how much bollywood have you seen? its fucking retarded.

 

Sweeping generalisation.

 

YES!

 

It is so inane. People bang on 'it's all about what they don't say'; reason being they have nothing to say because they are so predictable and boring.

 

Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken. Two hours shorter, infinitely more powerful.

[dan-likes-trees]

Just utter rubbish. How people are so amazingly stupid as to buy into this drivel never ceases to amaze me.

 

 

Bollocks/10

 

This joins Crash (2004) and Lost in Translation as awful films that people like because they think they should.

 

You have to be joking. I saw all three having known little to nothing about them (and knowing nothing of their critical reputations) and thought they were all superb.

 

I can see why you wouldn't be a fan of Slumdog after all this hype, it's charming but not that good... but it's such a fun story and so aesthetically brilliant and vibrant that I don't get how anyone can hate it.

 

Lost in Translation though... there's no calling that an awful film. I can see why it wouldn't appeal to people (minimalistic dialogue, no action, little plot) but again it's so god damn beautiful and perfectly shot and scripted that you have to at least acknowledge it's a good film.

 

And Crash... can't say I can remember it very well but I remember it being far better than awful...

 

--

 

In other news Im going to reiterate what a great film Squid and the Whale is. Quite short - just over an hour - but a brilliant story of the effects of a divorce on a family.

 

9 / 10

[Wesley]

Money Train

 

Snipes at his best/10

[Daft]

You have to be joking. I saw all three having known little to nothing about them (and knowing nothing of their critical reputations) and thought they were all superb.

 

I can see why you wouldn't be a fan of Slumdog after all this hype, it's charming but not that good... but it's such a fun story and so aesthetically brilliant and vibrant that I don't get how anyone can hate it.

 

Lost in Translation though... there's no calling that an awful film. I can see why it wouldn't appeal to people (minimalistic dialogue, no action, little plot) but again it's so god damn beautiful and perfectly shot and scripted that you have to at least acknowledge it's a good film.

 

And Crash... can't say I can remember it very well but I remember it being far better than awful...

 

I just couldn't get past how stupid elements of the story was. It was like two films running in parallel. Salim could have been in an Indian version of City of God; his pragmatic choices like selling the autograph for a good price, trying his best to survive. Jamal on the other hand was living in some dream world, it was alright that his mother got battered to death because it meant he could answer a question for his million, he always has an ideal in sight, always landed on his feet.

 

The cinematography was so jarring. You had these shots of slums spreading off into the distance, yet shot in vibrant colour virtually sanitising reality.

 

 

I can see why people like Lost in Translation, and I said it was probably unfair that I lumped it with the others like that. I really rate Sofia Coppola as a director, much less so as a writer. Visually I loved it. It wasn't that it was slow, it was basic. I found it completely obvious. There was nothing engaging about it. Actually I really don't have a problem with this film, I've just seen other films do the same, much better although certainly not as stylishly.

 

 

Crash is unforgivably bad. Incredibly contrived. It's such a neat film. The message was so blatant and forced. It has to have been aimed at people who can't think for themselves, because people who can already know that beyond colour and religion we are all human.

Edited June 13, 2009 by Daft

[Molly]

There's no denying Slumdog is full of clichés, has some extremely bad acting and is not strong enough as a film to hold some of the themes it comments on; but it was still enjoyable. It is a bit of a fairytale and I don't see what's wrong with that.

 

it's a movie that says the key to escaping the hell of privation and a complete lack of hope for the future isn't betterment through education, but winning a goddamned Western game show

 

It's not saying that winning Who wants to be a Millionaire is ''the key'' to escaping poverty; it's an almost unbelievable set of events, as we see in many fictional stories. I really can't believe anyone would interpret it as a lesson in life.

[Daft]

I think it's more that the show represents Western ideals like material gain equalling happiness.

 

Funnily enough, the company that helped fund the film, Celador, are the ones who own 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'.

[Paj!]

Fantastic Four : Rise Of The Silver Surfer

 

Watched with chair for the first time since the cinema two years ago, stunning.

 

I love when Invisible Woman pointlessly doesn't go invisible when trying to find out what Doc Doom is up to.

 

Joke/10

[jayseven]

Lol.

 

Bollywood is utter shit anyway. Are you trying to suggest that bollywood has ever offered anything more oscar-worthy than what Danny Boyle offered?

 

I agree, the feel-good, pat-yourself-on-the-back vibe that SM gives off is the only reason it got an oscar, and I agree with your unmentioned belief that it isn't, at its core, a good movie in the Oxygen_waste sense, but! People who find SM, Lost in Translation and crash to be 'utter drivel', or whatever, are people who are unable to switch off their criticising brains and realise that movies are made to watch and enjoy, not to be picked apart by psuedo-intellectual young people, who will no doubt gather their entire family around the TV when they're old when said movie is being shown, with cries of "ooh, this movie came out when I was your age - you haven't seen it?! You have to see it!" -- I mean, maybe I've not got a fault with what you say. Maybe I'm sad that you are so quick to dismiss something as if your view of it is so wholesome and absolute, as if you're not in yourself changing. Maybe I don't give a shit about the movie at all. Maybe I keep getting this nagging feeling whenever I read a post by you or Paj; clearly clever people selling their own opinions of a piece of entertainment to the snappiest quote by some 'cool' critic that they happen to find agreeable at the time. If you're rating it because it's art then do so based on your own reaction to the movie, not on anyone elses. If you have nothing to add to someone elses statement then who cares what you think anyway?

 

Maybe I do care what you think. Maybe I'd listen to your opinions more if your opinions ever expressed more middle ground. The ability to say something is "not too bad" is, to me, worth more than everything falling into one of three categories that do not apply, that do not transcend from your own opinion or view into anyone else's minds.

 

I know my tone can't translate through this. I'm not bitching, I don't dislike you (or paj, as I mentioned you too), and I know I've wasted a massive effing post on bollocks, that I'll no doubt be mocked for, but if you can get a sense of what I'm saying then it is all worth it.

 

Why do people feel so vulnerable about their opinions? Who are you trying to impress when you post in this thread, in this forum? Whose response are you afraid of? I just want some fucking humanity to relate to on here.

 

BLEH. I think I need to stfu and go back to being my own stereotype.

 

P.S.

 

I know, I'm a fool. Loltastic. I'm seeking help. ta.

[Daft]

I liked Hancock up top of page. Wasn't that universally slated?

 

And I admitted I was pushing my own opinion about Lost in Translation. Not my thing, I get why people like it, just like how I get how people like Bill Murray....okay, not the Bill Murray one...

 

It's not the technical side of Slumdog and Crash that I have a problem with really (I watch Smallville for goodness' sake! :p ). It is the implicit message, in Slumdog's case, and the stupidly obvious one in Crash's.

 

It was such a massive part of SD that I couldn't ignore it. I wanted to switch it off 40 minutes in (but I'm so stubborn with films I've rented I'll finish almost anything).

 

And on the Bollywood thing, I never said any of it was any good (really, I don't have a clue). I didn't mean it like that.

 

 

At the end of the day, when it comes down to taste I've always said I'd much rather enjoy something than not because ultimately if someone gets enjoyment out of something that I don't, then I am the one missing out. I just think it is unacceptable that SD has this lovely happy guise when it really carries some nasty implicit messages.

 

 

I maybe come across too strong with my posts. It's just me ranting, not specifically at someone. Sorry if it seems that way!

Edited June 13, 2009 by Daft

[jayseven]

I don't disagree!

 

With SM you mentioned passingly City of God, and I think that was clearly an influence on Boyle. He struggled to balance the devestating truths that he was trying to portray with some sort of rom-com element that, shamefully, british movies are so well known for in Hollywood. I think, with slumdog, Boyle was scared of really making any sort of message at all. In the future the movie will just be remembered for being the only completely non-white movie to win an award, and that's it. There's no real social commentary. There's nothing about the movie that makes it a classic... but the movie moves people. The movie connects on a human level in a way that it won't connect with people forever. The movie is not a snapshot of our contemporary world at all, and in my experience (in my degree... sigh), clasically great pieces of art/entertainment are widely not accepted in their day. But all that tells us is that in their day the audiences loved a play, or a film, in a way that we never will be able to. I don't really know what I'm getting at. This is the sort of discussion that I'd love to have over a spliff or a fire or something.

 

There is an odd thing about 'enjoying' something. The reason I love b-movies (the few dozen I've seen) is that nobody else has seen them, so I can watch them and enjoy them for whatever brief reason and not have to worry about what anyone else things. Whenever I watch a film or listen to an album I am so damn aware of the influences that my yet-to-be-decided opinion of it has had, that it really does detract from the enjoyment factor.

 

I'm just etching tangent after tangent for no reason. I am exceedingly drunk right now, in danger of invading the forums with penguins and their secret brothers the armadillos... I enjoy your rants, and genuinely I hope you're not offended if I ramble with them

[Daft]

Certainly not. I'm always in need of someone telling me to shut f*ck up!

 

Whether Boyle intended to have it read like it does isn't really relative, I don't think. It's the final context that I see this film in, and that it won 8 Oscars is a big part of it. I'm just asking myself, why this particular film?

 

I totally get your 'B-movie' thing. The main reason I stay out of the music thread and why I don't talk about music in general even though it's quite integral to my everyday life. It's basically the reverse logic that talking about your problems makes them less ominous; talking about thinks in a way serves to dilute your feelings. Applying this to things that make you happy, in many cases I find heightens the elation. From my bag of quotes, 'The things which are sacred or precious to us are the things we withdraw from promiscuous sharing.'

 

Reading that back that might actually be something completely different to what you were saying... Not even sure that made sense.

 

It's late.

[jayseven]

But that's the thing! Watching the movie with those 8 (blimey, that many?!) oscars in the back of your mind is going to distort your viewing, no doubt. Shorty and nami, my flatmates, have tried to watch The Wire and Battlestar Galactica but neither show (especially initially) can live up to the hype that everyone gives it.

 

What an 'artist' intends to make is, admittedly, something I nearly always carry with me when I first observe entertainment/art. I most definitely sit there and try and find that precise intention; that initial reason for this thing's existence... Again, with b-movies I get to suspend that critical eye and just... experience.

 

I'm not sure I follow you completely - are you saying that a burden shared is a weight halved, but applying this to a positive emotion or feeling engorges it? To some extent, I definitely agree. I find joy in being able to say "oh yeah! I introduced this to that motherfucker, and they love it! Yeah!"

 

But then your bagged-quote suggests that we should hold dear to what we find most appealing, lest others somehow steal from our appreciation, or dilute it?

 

haha - I don't care if it makes no sense, it is far more interesting to think about than just reading a movie review. While I don't know which way you specifically lean (though I tend to think you like to keep your favourite things private?), I will say that I like to try and spread what I deeply enjoy - that's why I always harp on about Waking life in this thread and mewithoutYou in the music thread -- both were seminal elements in the construction of who I am, and I still have the belief that even if 100 people hate it, at least 1 person will get teh same reaction to me.

 

mmmm... off-topic conversation goodness!

[Mundi]

Battle Royal

The plot is simply: 40 school kids are left on in island and told that the last man standing gets to live.

This is supposed to be an act to solve the problem with kids acting out.

It sounds better if you watch it

 

This is probably my fourth watch of this film and my opinion of it is pretty much the same.

I am enchanted with the absurdity of what is happening in the film and how it is seems to be no real solution to the problem that the film presents.

It is more of a way for bitter people wanting to outlet their anger to those troublesome youngsters.

The case in point being the video demonstration of what they are about to do and the music that is played in the film.

The plot is not really what drags me back to it.

What I watch it for is the "What would you do in this scenario"

I don´t want to drag on about this.

For me this is a film that I would recommend to watch if your into gory and twisted films.

 

This has also inspired me to write-up a forum game inspired by this, just need to sit down and write it all up and see if it would work based on my idea.

[Goafer]

Battle Royal

The plot is simply: 40 school kids are left on in island and told that the last man standing gets to live.

This is supposed to be an act to solve the problem with kids acting out.

It sounds better if you watch it

 

This is probably my fourth watch of this film and my opinion of it is pretty much the same.

I am enchanted with the absurdity of what is happening in the film and how it is seems to be no real solution to the problem that the film presents.

It is more of a way for bitter people wanting to outlet their anger to those troublesome youngsters.

The case in point being the video demonstration of what they are about to do and the music that is played in the film.

The plot is not really what drags me back to it.

What I watch it for is the "What would you do in this scenario"

I don´t want to drag on about this.

For me this is a film that I would recommend to watch if your into gory and twisted films.

 

This has also inspired me to write-up a forum game inspired by this, just need to sit down and write it all up and see if it would work based on my idea.

 

My favourite film ever. I actually have it twice.

 

 

Demolition Man

 

I actually turned it off half way through so I could get a nap in before my night shift, so I can't do a proper review.

 

It seemed pretty good so far. The mention of President Swarzenegger made me laugh. If only they knew how close to the truth they were (or maybe it will happen).

 

7/10 so far.